"MOTORSPORT" ARCHIVES 1950's, 1960's, 1970's and 1980's

Review based on 1950's, DVD format, £39.99 each or free with a 2 year subscription,

As far as I know, Startline hasn't reviewed a DVD before, and if it has it will have been a “movie” DVD rather than a data DVD. So this is a first, and with each DVD dealing with a decade (120 magazines) it is also based on not having read the product. Probably another first for Startline reviews, if not for some commercial published reviews.

The idea is a good one. Every page, every picture, every word from the magazine. Where the pictures were in colour, so is the disk. It's a matter of personal preference whether you want 10 years of Motorsport, because some of editor Bill Boddy's ideas can be a bit idiosyncratic. I think I recall a 4 page feature in the 1980's on the cylinder head design of the Bebe Peugeot of 1913. As my copy deals with the 1950's, I give as an example the October 1952 magazine which includes a report of the Farnborough Airshow. This is odd in itself in a motor sport magazine, but the report gives a jolly description of the supersonic bangs aimed at the crowd by DeHavilland 110 pilot John Derry. A 2 line post script to the piece then sends sympathy to those bereaved after 31 were killed when Derry's aircraft broke up 2 days later. Sensitivity must have meant something different in 1952.

However, most with a taste for history will tolerate the Boddyism's to read the words of Denis Jenkinson, one of the all-time great writers on motor racing. Some would say that his legendary report of the 1955 Mille Miglia is worth the £39.99 by itself. Other delights are, of course, the advertisements, some of which just bemuse me, and others (a Jaguar SS100 for £355 anybody?) make me look for the keys to the Tardis.

And yet...the execution just isn't good enough to make this a recommended purchase. The DVD (which uses the Flash Player, never a favourite of mine) will work on both Windows and Mac computers. I mention this since I discovered some time ago that I am not the only Mac user in the village. The facilities include browsing and enlarging the page so that it's big enough to read and a search facility. These sound good, but to be blunt the enlargement is only just sufficient on my 15” Windows laptop. To read it easily a bigger screen is recommended. The search facility is just dreadful. First of all the slot where you type in the search phrase is barely big enough to read on the laptop and when the software searches it's very poor. For reasons best known to computer programmers it doesn't give the same answers every time – I've put the names of some friends who competed in the '50's and they came up as found on one run but not on another. When they were selected, the search isn't like that I'm used to on Adobe Acrobat pdf reader which homes in on the word on the page. This just dumps you on a double page spread and you're on your own. Once you've found your target, you can't bookmark it, though you can print it. Finally, the Flash Player takes over your whole screen and you can't minimise it without knowing those funny control key combinations only the Stephen Brookes, Doug McLays and Samiers of the world know. Not good enough, but I guess that's Flash Player for you.

As to the reproduction, I expected the pages to be perfect quality. After all, the DVD comes from the magazine publishers. It isn't, it's blurry, and some of the covers have somebody's name written on them. Anybody who has a copier at work with a scanner function will recognise the standard. It's ok, but really should be better. The photographs will definitely not “wow” you. If Motorsport want to know how to do the job properly, they should have a look at the Flight International archive which is on http://www.flightglobal.com/staticpages/archive.html. Searching is down to the word, the files are pdf's and much clearer, and it covers 1909 to 2005. Mind you, the price is a bit different. Flight's archive is free.

If you already subscribe to Motorsport, (unlikely if you're under 40 - ed) and you're renewing your subscription, it's a reasonable free gift. If you are thinking of it as a purchase (or as a Christmas gift), the lacklustre technology makes £40 a bit too much for what you get.

Tony Cotton

(I know some of our readers are aircraft enthusiasts. That Flight archive should lead to several quiet evenings in front of the computer screen. Apologies now to all wives and partners adversely affected.)

Jenks, Moss and Mercedes team manager Uhlenhaut celebrate their Mille Miglia win on the June 1955 cover

Small version of an ad for a 1933 Aston Martin £175, 1934 Frazer Nash £135, 1938 SS Jag £355 and a 1946 MG TC £355. Same edition.

Pix from Motorsport Archive disk